Ohjelma-akseli

04/08/2026

From the audience side, Weekend Festival looked effortless.

Thousands of people enjoying music. Guest engineers focusing on their mixes. DJs stepping on stage one after another.

Behind the scenes, it reminded me that even after more than 25 years in this industry, there’s always something new to learn.

On the setup day, everything didn’t go quite as planned, and the time limits of the noise permit came before I had the opportunity to fully tune the system. Instead of having several hours to tune the PA, I had roughly one hour the following morning before the first guest engineer arrived.

That meant trusting the preparation.

Many people think a system engineer’s work begins when the measurement microphone comes out and the pink noise starts playing.

In reality, that’s often the final step.

Most of the work happens long before the first measurement: designing the system in d&b audiotechnik ArrayCalc, calculating coverage and delays, planning loudspeaker locations, coordinating with the PA crew, and making hundreds of small decisions before a single note is played.

Fortunately, having a detailed system design prepared in ArrayCalc gave me a solid starting point. Over the years I’ve learned to trust the work done before arriving on site, and this weekend was another reminder of just how valuable that preparation can be.

This weekend also reminded me that preparation isn’t only technical.

With a different crew than usual, I found myself spending more time supporting the PA fly team than I had expected. One lesson I’ll take into the next project is to make the preparation even more precise. That includes providing exact positioning measurements directly from the Vectorworks model before setup begins. The more accurately the physical deployment matches the original design, the less time is spent making adjustments later—whether that means moving loudspeakers or recalculating the system.

Despite the limited tuning time, every guest engineer who visited the main stage was happy with the system and didn’t ask for any changes during the weekend.

That wasn’t because I had time to perfect everything on site.

It was because most of the work had already been done before the first measurement.

The less time you have to tune, the more important the preparation becomes.

The audience hears the result. They rarely see the hundreds of decisions that made it possible.

08/07/2026

Last weekend I was working as the System Engineer at Ruisrock’s Beach Stage.

It’s one of Finland’s most iconic festival venues, known for its unique atmosphere and location—literally on the shore of the Baltic Sea.

Everyone in the audience notices when the weather changes from a warm summer day to heavy rain. As a system engineer, I notice something else: the way sound travels through the air changes as well.

My job is to make sure the audience experiences the same show, even when the atmosphere between the loudspeakers and the audience keeps changing. With
d&b audiotechnik , that can be done by adjusting the THC (Temperature & Humidity Compensation) settings to match the current conditions.

After Thursday night’s heavy rain, the ArraySight weather sensors stopped working, so for the rest of the festival I relied on manual temperature and humidity measurements—combined with experience—to estimate the conditions at the top of the arrays and adjust the system accordingly.

Swipe through the photos to see just how dramatically the conditions changed during the weekend.

The audience will always notice when the weather changes.

If they never notice that the sound system had to adapt to those changing conditions, then we’ve done our job well.

Now, if I could make one request for the coming festival weekends, it would simply be this:

A little less rain… and a little more sunshine. 😎

28/06/2026

15/06/2026

Two days as House System Engineer for Deep Purple’s Finland shows—first at Metro Arena in Espoo and then at Nokia Arena in Tampere—gave me a few reminders about what great touring productions and great people have in common.

The first thing I noticed was the attitude of the entire touring crew. Everyone was professional, approachable, and genuinely respectful toward the local crew. On the morning of the second show, a member of the tour management came to FOH and personally thanked us for the previous day’s work. It was a small gesture, but one that says a lot about the culture of the production. And it definitely cheered me up more than any amount of Finnish black coffee.

The second thing was working alongside Tobi Hoff. What impressed me was not only his willingness to share knowledge and experiences, but also his curiosity to hear about mine. The best professionals are often the ones who never stop learning from others, regardless of their role or experience level.

The third reminder was the value of consistency of the PA.

Consistency doesn’t start during system tuning. It starts much earlier, during the system design phase.

With d&b audiotechnik systems, tools like make it possible to build a predictable design before a single loudspeaker is flown. From there, deployment and optimization are about turning that prediction into reality.

My goal on day one in Espoo was to optimize the system so that Tobi could focus on mixing rather than adapting to the PA. On day two in Tampere, despite moving to a significantly larger venue, the objective remained exactly the same: make the system feel familiar.

After a brief listen on the first day, we were ready to go. On the second day, the listening session was even shorter. A quick check, a thumbs-up, and he could immediately focus on the show.

For me, that’s one of the clearest indicators of a successful system. When the PA behaves predictably from venue to venue, the engineer can trust what they hear and concentrate on the music rather than the technology.

Great touring productions are built on many things: talented people, mutual respect, knowledge sharing, and systems that behave predictably every day.

Over these two shows, I was reminded how closely those things are connected.

Many thanks to Tobi Hoff, the Deep Purple touring crew, and the entire Creative Technology Finland team for two great days.

08/06/2026

The other week I was working on a Massive Attack show at Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki. Last week, I was at Avicii Arena in Stockholm supporting a large-scale corporate event.

Different productions. Different audiences. Different objectives.

In a concert, the goal is often impact, energy and emotion.

In a corporate event, the goal is different: every word must be heard clearly in every seat.

And in a venue the size of Avicii Arena, that is not something that happens by accident.

System engineering work doesn’t stop once the system is tuned. Especially not in a spoken-word event. The room changes throughout the day.

An empty arena during rehearsals behaves differently from a full arena during the show. People become part of the acoustic environment, affecting absorption and the overall balance of the system. It happens in every show, but in a corporate event like this, it becomes even more critical.

Working with a well-designed d&b audiotechnik system provided a solid foundation, allowing the focus to remain on coverage consistency and speech intelligibility throughout the event.

That’s why system engineering during a live event is a continuous process of listening, measuring, monitoring and supporting the FOH engineer.

The FOH engineer focuses on the mix. My role as a system engineer is to make sure the system continues to behave as expected and to provide information, measurements and adjustments when needed, so that the engineer can focus on delivering the show.

After a long day of rehearsals, presentations and monitoring, the best feedback came from a very happy client and a successful event.

Grateful for the trust from Creative Technology Finland and proud to have been part of another great team effort.

18/05/2026

Outdoor season started last week in Vantaa — and with that, the summer season is officially underway.

This summer is shaping up to be a busy one:
festivals until end of August, a few arena shows in between, and some corporate events along the way.

Every outdoor show brings its own technical challenges. This one, right in the middle of a city square, meant dealing with reflective surfaces, surrounding buildings and changing conditions between afternoon tuning and showtime.

That’s also one of the things I enjoy in system engineering — adapting the system to the environment instead of relying on a “one setup fits all” approach.

And with d&b audiotechnik and (Temperature Humidity Control), it’s possible to react to changing temperature and humidity conditions during the show and keep the system behaving consistently even when the environment changes significantly between daytime tuning / sound check and evening showtime.

A good start to what looks like an intense but exciting summer ahead.

Grateful again for the trust from Creative Technology Finland and happy to continue another season working with d&b audiotechnik systems.

06/05/2026

A few days off in Spain before the festival season kicks off.

After a busy spring with arena shows and tight schedules, taking time to reset is just as important as the work itself.

A bit of sun, some warmth, and stepping away from the noise for a moment — simple things, but they make a real difference.

Now recharged and ready for what looks like a busy summer of festivals (and a few arena shows along the way).

30/04/2026

Microsoft AI tour 2026 in Helsinki, Veikkaus Arena. Busy but great week with my favourite d&b audiotechnik SL-series system and crew

30/04/2026

Why did Robbie Williams FOH Engineer, Joe Harling, opt for choosing d&b audiotechnik for the Britpop tour? 🤔

“It’s the best all-in-one solution, including DSP and amplifiers. The GSL and KSL cabinets sound incredible with ArrayProcessing. The SL Series systems, which were designed to work with ArrayProcessing, are in my opinion somewhat unfair to everything else, because the whole family is simply far better than anything else currently on the market”

All that and more, in Joe's full interview here: https://bit.ly/4ejayqP

07/04/2026

Sound System Optimization Roadmap – One-day practical workshop
📍 Aino Areena, Järvenpää 📅 28.4.2026
Miten äänentoistojärjestelmän optimointi oikeasti tapahtuu käytännössä?

Tässä workshopissa voit seurata koko prosessin alusta loppuun ilman omaa tietokonetta tai mittauksia. Kaikki vaiheet esitetään selkeästi suurilta screeneiltä, jotta voit keskittyä ymmärtämään itse prosessia.

Päivän aikana keskitytään siihen, miten nykyaikaisia PA-järjestelmiä optimoidaan todellisissa käyttöympäristöissä.
Keskiössä ovat akustiset mittaukset ja niiden käyttö päätöksenteossa: – yksittäisten komponenttien verifioinnista – aina koko järjestelmän optimointiin asti

Käytössä on täysimittainen PA-järjestelmä, ja kaikki vaiheet demonstroidaan reaaliajassa.
Näet konkreettisesti, miten akustinen mittausdata muuttuu toimenpiteiksi – ja miten nämä vaikuttavat siihen, mitä tilassa oikeasti kuullaan.

Liput ja lisätiedot: https://www.eventbrite.fi/e/1986724028049?aff=oddtdtcreator